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Title: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume, Stanley Tweyman ISBN: 0-88206-098-8 Publisher: Caravan Books Pub. Date: 30 June, 2000 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $50.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Hume's Posthumous Classic
Comment: This short and artfully written book was published after Hume's death. Hume did not wish to experience the controversy engendered by the arguments advanced in the book. It is likely as well that Hume was concerned also with offending some of the moderate Presbyterian clergy who were his personal friends and had been his partisans in other controversies. This book is primarily an attack on the idea that the exercise of reason and logic provides support for religion, and particularly that application of reason leads to strong evidence for the existence of a beneficient God. This line of thought had become particularly popular among liberal theologians in the first half of the 18th century and was a widely held notion among Enlightenment intellectuals across Europe and North America. This idea is still widely held today and can be seen in the writings of the so-called 'intelligent design' advocates of creationism. Hume's criticisms, then, are not only of historic interest but continue to have relevance to our contemporary lives.
The Dialogues are constructed as a 3 cornered argument between three friends. Demea, a man upholding revealed religion against the idea that reason provides support for the existence of God. Cleanthes, an advocate of natural religion. Philo, a skeptical reasoner who attacks the positions held by Demea and Cleanthes. For those who like Hume's sprightly 18th century style, this is a fun book to read. Hume artfully divides some of his strongest arguments between Cleanthes and Philo, and gives the Dialogues the real sense of a dispute among 3 intelligent friends. Philo is generally taken to represent Hume's positions but Cleanthes articulates some strong arguments and provides some of the best criticisms of Demea's fideism. Much of the book is devoted to attacking the argument from design, which Cleanthes attempts to defend against assaults from Philo and Demea. In many ways, the argument from design is the major idea of those supporting the natural religion approach to existence of God. Hume's critique is thorough and powerful. It even includes an anticipation of Darwin's idea's of selection, though the basis for Hume's critique is primarily epistemological. In the later parts of the book, Hume attacks also the comsological argument for the existence of God, though this discussion is relatively brief and a bit confusing. Hume's analysis is consistent broadly with much of his philosophical work. In many ways, his great theme was the limitations of reason, and this book is an example of his preoccupation with the relatively limited role of reason in establishing certain facts about the universe. He finishes with short criticisms of the idea that religion is needed for a stable and well ordered society and defends the usefullness of skeptical reasoning.
It is important to view the Dialogues as part of a critique of religion that Hume sustained in several works. His Natural History of Religion, the On Miracles section of the Enquiry Concerning Human Understacing, and other essays comprise a broad criticism of religion. Other pillars of religion, such as the existence of miracles and revelation, are criticized in his other work. While Hume denied being an atheist and was apparently disturbed by the dogmatic atheism of French philosophes he met in Paris, he was certainly not religous in any conventional sense.
This is a short and very readable book but the power of its arguments are totally out of proportion to its length.
Rating: 5
Summary: The sun doesn't rise or set or fall
Comment: I had a mental love affair with David Hume. I found myself intigued and captivated and frustrated all at once. And, in the end, there was something liberating and alienating. To believe or not to believe--that's something Hume leaves to the reader. Oh, by the way, technically, the sun doesn't rise, nor does it 'set' or fall. The earth spins around its axis--the side that is facing the sun is day; the side facing away from the sun is night. And yet, after reading David Hume, I might even doubt that explanation.
Rating: 5
Summary: also not a review
Comment: Actually, the rising sun example is often cited as something Hume was completely unsure about. (theoretically, of course) Hume was essentially unwilling to believe anything, be it materialistic or spiritualistic.
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Title: A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects (Oxford Philosophical Texts) by David Hume, David Fate Norton, Mary J. Norton ISBN: 0198751729 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Dialogues and Natural History of Religion (Oxford World's Classics) by David Hume, J.C.A. Gaskin ISBN: 0192838768 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Oxford Philosophical Texts) by David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp ISBN: 0198752482 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Common Faith (Terry Lectures (Paperback)) by John Dewey ISBN: 0300000693 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Critique of Practical Reason (Great Books in Philosophy) by Immanuel Kant, T. K. Abbott ISBN: 1573920630 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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